Minutes of the International Culture Commission Meeting
Nairobi, Kenya
January 5, 2007

The International Culture Commission met along with the Administrative Board of the Institutum Carmelitanum in Nairobi, Kenya on January 3-5. On the morning of January 5th, a separate meeting of the International Culture Commission was held to review the Six Year Plan and to review proposals for the 2007 General Chapter.

Present for the meeting were Patrick McMahon (Praeses), Jos Huls (Neer), Fernando Millán (Baetica), Michael Plattig (GerS), and William Harry (General Council).

In 2002, the International Culture Commission developed four goals: (A) to develop a strategy to promote higher studies in the Order; (B) to appoint an ad hoc commission to study (1) the proposals of the Institutum Carmelitanum, (2) the role of a General Delegate for Culture, and (3) the proposal, approved by the General Chapter, put forward by the Titus Brandsma Institute; (C) to involve the members of the Order in developing new centers of Carmelite spirituality in the various regions of the world; and (D) to continue the work of connecting the various Carmelite libraries in the world.

During our meeting, progress and deficiencies on each goal were discussed. A summary of the discussion is below under each goal.

(A) to develop a strategy to promote higher studies in the Order:

            Since 2001, nine members of the Order were reported in CITOC as having earned doctorates (Could there be more that we don’t know about?). Many more have received licentiates or master level degrees. A number of students are involved in such studies at the present time.

            The strategy proposed by the Commission to promote higher studies was two-fold: (1) to pro-actively encourage, primarily through the Delegate for Culture, students and their Provincials to pursue advanced degrees, (2) to conduct a “needs assessment” beginning with a survey of the Provinces to see what members have advanced degrees and in what areas. However, there was very limited response by the Provinces which hampered any realistic analysis of the Order’s needs at this time.

            The Commission’s overall impression is that there are not adequate preparations being made in the Order to provide for a healthy intellectual life in the Order and in some areas there is no interest in doing so. There are several reasons: (1) many of the younger Carmelites are not capable of this type of work and there are fewer younger Carmelites; (2) the Order has no “faculties of theology” which forces us to concentrate on preparing professors (although we believe the development of “Centers of Spirituality” could require that we prepare people with advanced degrees); (3) interest in advanced studies need to be encouraged by Provincials and those involved in the intellectual life of the Order and this is not always being done; (4) the return on the Province’s financial investment in the members’ education is not seen as worthwhile.

            The Commission will make some specific proposals to the General Chapter to strengthen the Order’s efforts in this area. (See Addendum 1)


(B) to appoint an ad hoc commission to study (1) the proposals of the Institutum Carmelitanum, (2) the role of a General Delegate for Culture, and (3) the proposal, approved by the General Chapter, put forward by the Titus Brandsma Institute:

(1) The Culture Commission asked that the Administrative Board (Comitato Centrale) of the Institutum Carmelitanum deal with the proposals they put forward.

(2) The General Delegate for Culture was established at the 1995 General Chapter with unclear responsibilities and the role has changed frequently since then. Since the 2001 Chapter the Delegate served on the Culture Commission, the Administrative Board of the Institutum Carmelitanum, with particular responsibility for the coordination of the libraries and the encouragement of advanced studies. The work of the Delegate in the area of advanced studies was discussed above. The Delegate’s work with the Order’s libraries is discussed below.
            The Commission will make a specific proposal for the role of the Delegate for Culture at the General Chapter. (See Addendum 1)

(3) The Culture Commission remains very committed to the SPINE and SPIRIN projects of the Titus Brandsma Institute. Members have reviewed the videos produced by the Titus Brandsma Institute explaining the programs on several occasions and have been updated by members of the Titus Brandsma Institute who serve on either the Culture Commission or the Administrative Board of the Institutum. The Institutum Carmelitanum has expressed its desire to become involved as have a couple of other Institutes. The Carmelite Provincials of Northern Europe and the Carmelite Librarians have also received presentations on SPINE and SPIRIN during the last few years.
            During this final year, the Culture Commission has been updated on the testing stage of the programs and ways that a network among Carmelite Institutes could be built using SPINE and SPIRIN. It is agreed that SPINE and SPIRIN has the potential to dramatically alter the landscape in Carmelite spirituality and how the Institutes and scholars work.
            It was stated that the Commission has done all it can do at this point, given the current status in the development of SPINE and SPIRIN.


(C) to involve the members of the Order in developing new centers of Carmelite spirituality in the various regions of the world:

            An initial survey of the Carmelite Institutes shows that we had some form of established Institutes in Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, the Netherlands, North America, and the Philippines.
            During the past six years, an Institute has been successfully established in Britain/Ireland (in co-operation with the OCDs). The Iberian Peninsula has begun moving towards building an Institute with an emphasis on publications such as Fonte. The Institute in the Philippines has been re-focused as an Institute for Asia.
            An initial meeting of the various Institutes was held with very poor attendance. A second meeting was held in conjunction with the Congress on the Rule in July 2005 in Lisieux, France. The goals of the meetings were to see what each Institute does and if some form of mutual support and networking could take place. We have no two Institutes that are the same! Each has responded to the needs and resources of the area in which they are located.
            The Administrative Board of the Carmelite Institute met with some members of the African missions in Nairobi in January 2007 and discussed the idea of a Carmelite Institute for Africa. However, this would be something for the future.


(D) to continue the work of connecting the various Carmelite libraries in the world:

            During the past five years, two initiatives in this area have been focused on. There have been regular meetings of the Carmelite librarians under the coordination of the Delegate for Culture. A voluntary association—the Carmelite Library Association (CLA) was agreed upon to build cooperation among the libraries in their various projects (card catalogues on the internet, establishing/strengthening libraries in developing areas, digitizing rare books, etc).
            Each time the librarians meet, more members have participated indicating growing interest in working together in this important area of our heritage.
            The group has adopted the MARC record system and the Z3950 platform which will allow people to search one or more of the library card catalogue databases online. The catalogue of holdings in the Carmelite Library of the Dutch Institute (Boxmeer) came online in 2004 followed by the Carmelite Library of the Australian-East Timor Province. The libraries in Washington, DC and Rome – the two major Carmelite Libraries in the world – will hopefully be on-line before the General Chapter.
            The Irish Province recently established a Carmelite Library in Gort Muire.

As a result of the discussions, two proposals were developed and are attached to these notes:

Addendum 1: Reconfiguring the International Culture Commission to Include the International Commission for the Study of the Charism and Spirituality of the Order.

Addendum 2: To Create a Development Board to Raise Funding for Projects of the Order in Six Specific Areas.